Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, The Far East and Australasia, Volume VII, Part 2

895.20/10–2749

The Ambassador in Korea (Muccio) to the Secretary of State

secret
No. 672

Seoul, October 27, 1949.

The Ambassador refers to the Embassy’s airgram No. 282, September 19, 1949, classification Top Secret, and Embassy’s despatch No. 618, October 7, 1949¹ classification Secret, and has the honor to report, for the Department’s information, on the present status of Korean–Chinese negotiations. The Korean Government is understood to have rejected the Chinese requests for air and sea bases.

On October 24 President Rhee told an Embassy officer that he intended to reject a request from the Chinese Embassy for landing rights for CNAC in Korea. (He supplied a copy of the note from the Chinese Embassy, which is enclosed.)²

President Rhee said that this request for CNAC landing rights was tied up with various requests made by Chinese representatives for sea and air bases. In connection with these requests, the Chinese had offered military equipment, especially planes, saying they would transfer equipment received or coming from the United States. The Korean Government, not wishing to get involved in the Chinese civil war, did not wish to give the Chinese any base of operations in Korea, but the Korean Government was most anxious to get more arms, especially planes. The Koreans, therefore, had urged the Chinese to make arms available for which the Korean Government would pay in red ginseng which was considered a valuable commodity in China. To this, the Chinese had made no response, but instead urged the granting of landing rights to CNAC.

Coupled with the CNAC proposal, as presented in the next to last paragraph of the Chinese Embassy’s note, was the statement that CNAC was authorized to negotiate for giving of assistance to the Korean Government. This was a reference to continued negotiations on an exchange of arms for bases, and probably the basing of Chinese military planes in Korea.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Chinese note had been received on September 26, and the Chinese Ambassador was pressing for a reply. President Rhee supplied the Embassy officer with a copy of the draft of the Korean reply, which is attached.³ Every effort will be made to secure confirmation of the fact of its transmittal and a copy of the final note.⁴

1. Not printed; it reported on a conversation with President Rhee on the subject of Korean-Chinese negotiations (895.20/10–749).
2. Not printed.
3. Not printed.
4. The text of the Korean note to the Chinese Embassy in Seoul, dated October 28, rejecting the Chinese request for landing rights and other facilities for CNAC, was transmitted to the Department with despatch No. 693, November 5, from Seoul; neither printed (893.796/11–549).